Several hours passed as I went through several documents within the mainframe matrix.

I paused to stretch briefly, cracking several bones and releasing the tension in my muscles. Working through and understanding conceptionally the puzzle that I have to piece together for a wider picture has proven difficult and time consuming.

Alas I am but one person when in reality I need a team of trusted individuals to help speed the process.

Its also quickly turning into day 5 of continuous data analysation.

N.I.C.K.A has yet to offer her help more extensively than the simple summarization at the end of each document again.

If not for considering that she has no real physical main component to rearrange I would have already ripped out her motherboard chip and rebooted her myself. So I must occasionally relieve my petty need for expressing some passive aggression to satisfy my fancy for control.

Otherwise I feel unfulfilled in being the thorn on the side of this entity as much as she is mine.

I steered the sphere down to one of the few last remaining flashing pages.

New visual recordings

Which was right on top of the Archival recordings.

My mouth grew dry and my body gave a slight shiver. I steeled my nerves I must see the recording that started this particular journey.

The letters and numbers dispersed widening to make way for the visual recording.

The screen was blank and quiet for a few seconds.

A sound echoed in the room. Heavy breathing was heard at first before the fast blur of an image being focused appeared.

The Elder noble queen materialized.... she was gaunt and her skin was flaky. Possibly from an acute shortage of water. She breathed again this time more labored.(minipurse)

She licked her lips in a futile attempt to moisten them. "Please, listen to this message. I...I am one of the few coherent survivors still left...."

In the distance I could hear a high pitch scream then a moan of intense gurgling pain of someone dying. Followed by some scratching and slow scuffling. She turned to face in the direction of the faraway sound, fear evident on her face.

She continued shakily " N.I.C.K.A has been instructed to implement Operation Nesting. Protocols are located under Procedures 167/34
She will take care of the rest....I have tried to communicate with the beacon and have yet to receive a reply. I fear that the repairs given to the outer communication disc have failed. Massive system failures have crippled the ship. Ship supplies are now gone....."

I paused the recording wrinkling my brow. She knew help was not coming from us on the planet surface or the other fleets from another galaxy by this time.

There is no fuel left to refuel onboard for ships since the devastating blow of the last blast of this civilization before its total collapse years ago. I presume that the remaining stores would have been used to extend and sustain the mother ships critical life support. So even if somebody was willing to go evacuate them, they too would likely share the same fate as the ships survivors. So why did she persist?

I resumed the recording " I have barricaded myself within my inner chamber and have been working on various projections and simulations for the best possible outcome for the continuation of our genus on the planet surface....."

A large bang shuddered the room sending plumes of dusk cascading down from the ceiling. Her eyes widen with knowing despair.

"....I have sent updated ship schematics, if in the future the ship is able to be stripped for much needed scraps, you may find the most valuable pieces worth your trouble highlighted..... This will be my last recording.... I will save the last remnants of oxygen in the ship. We are no longer capable to continue and maintain life within the ship with our depleted resources"

I watched as she started to punch in a series of codes in the mainframe. She quietly pulls up the screen into the recording showing her shutting off ventilation and reversing the mechanism to absorb the remaining oxygen.

She switched to the board showing the entirety of ship sections and rooms. A third of the sections were already in red. Slowly she pressed on each room and section watching the blue color slowly turn to red.

The door in her chamber started to thud continuously as she worked her way through.

Creak...Creak....creak

The door shuddered and the screams on the other side grew more fervent.

She stared at the screen blankly " Nicka, voice activated emergency shutoff code off, set voice recognition to Taktak, CONFIRM order"

" yes.... order confirmed. Taktak voice recognition confirmed.... Oxygen transfer confirmed for Cyronur...."

The barricaded door crashed to the floor. She whipped around claws extended gnashing her large teeth.... A deafening silence filtered into the space, thick with anticipation.

" HOW DARE YOU! YOU ALL WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!!" She screamed foaming from her mouth shattering the stillness.

" Not before we make you pay for yours, queeeen" one of them sneered hidden within a small growing cluster of nest mates at the entrance of her chamber.

In the next moment she disappeared and appeared in the distance away from the recording screen.

Her large clawed hand swung from the ground palm up at the crowd. Bodies flailed in the air as they were propelled high above the heads of the crowd.

They screamed in surprise at first then terror before mustering collectively to attack once she was in the middle of the thick throng. Eergh she huffed as she bulldozed into the bodies attacking.

The recording lenses lost focus of the mass for a couple minutes, only the audio heard was clear enough to discern what was going on.

Disjointed screams filtered in. " I want to live...." A voice clamored. " why?! We are important too!!" Another desperately pleaded.

Voices jumbled together.

"......stop her.....urreggghh.......stop the program.......get to it......."

The lenses readjusted and slowly zoomed into the corner of where the fight was going on. The recording jumped from face to face trying to find the queen. Some were shown splattered up against the walls oozing their life blood, limp and lifeless. Others clutched their broken appendages slowly retreating, dragging dark patches of blood allover her polished floors.

The hunger and despair of the nest had greatly outweighed her power or her pheromones. She was no longer in control. They had gone rabid and revolted against the system that would have usually kept them docile.

I watched feeling the blood drain from my face. I blanched further as one of the nest members clattered to the front of the screen.

He gurgled a silent incomprehensible plea, blood pouring down from his mangled jaw. His fingers skimming over the screen frantically trying to do something unseen to the viewer.

The queen roared behind him " NO!!!, we will all share this same fate together. This is for the future, think of the future! We must die so they can live!!!"

With what I can imagine is her last bit of strength, she drags her body up from the crowd, pulling a trail of bodies clinging desperately to every possible surface struggling to detain her.

"HURRY!!!" They clamored pitifully.

Overhead N.I.C.K.A. announces apathically to the riot " Inner Chamber de pressurizing, warning: oxygen levels depleting. Please proceed to evacuation pods" The lights in the room flickered ominously.

The male's fingers clicked and clacked against the screen more wildly. His eyes jumping from place to place in a matching pattern.

Finally a small triumphant smirk played on his lips but it was short lived. The queen had shaken off the living chain shackling her. In the next instant a shadow sliced across his body and blood splattered across the screen. He slumped over the table in front of the recording frame, blood pooling around him. I rapidly closed my eyes concentrating on blank serene empty spaces so that the creeping fear could precipitate from my body.

Exhaling slowly I open my eyes again and slowly reversed the moment guiding the sphere slowly through the scene. Frame by frame I watched the queen get closer and closer before her arm struck down onto the briefly unaware nest member. The claws tore his body cleanly in two in one frighteningly powerful strike.

The queen glanced into the mechanical eyes observing the scene, a tear slowly escaping her left eye.

" WARNING: critically low oxygen levels detected." The overhead message boomed.

The queen staggered a couple steps away from the body. The group of nest members now laid on thier backs with mouths agape and chests struggling to find air. Gently she scooped up stray bodies from the border of the mass and laid them next to the others. She curled up next them placing her big hand over them in a protective manner finally ceasing to move altogether.

" Oxygen depleted....stand by"

Nothing in the room moved and the recording cut off after a couple minutes of not detecting any movement.

My hand shook in anger and disbelief. I told them.......I told them.

Before any of this had happened I had fore warned them of our rapidly declining discipline and order.

The sphere spun faster and faster as I clipped together scenes from recordings from months before this final event and replayed them all together in a final movie of the downfall of our campaign.

I watched disgusted as scenes of debauchery, sloth, greed, incompetence, and gluttony ran rampant on the ship.

Heaving from the sheer volume of mismanagement. I felt uncaring and drained for the occupants who had sought out their own demise despite all the warnings.

I think anybody would have gone crazy if they knew they were going to die in the vast expanse of space without any hope of help, right?